A little Teifling
by Drucchi
Summary: I always wondered how did the KC study warlock magic? Here is my guess to how.
1. Chapter 1

A dull summer morning in West Harbor, the village's resident fiend was lying on a riverbank fishing. Every day he would sit there hours upon hours until he could think of something better to do. He also went there to avoid the more non-tolerant villagers like the Mossfield brothers.

He was barely ten years of age, five inches long horns adorned his forehead hiding beneath his dark red hair. The child did have magic talent, but he had kept it hidden from the villagers, even Tarmas the mage didn't suspect a thing.

One such day around noon a voice interrupted his solitude. The voice was gentle, friendly and female. The woman asked: "Catch anything?". He looked around and saw a beautiful young woman, she was not from West Harbor he knew that much. She wore plain leather armor and a scarf covering the most of her head. But there were something else, there were something strange, something familiar, something wrong about her.

He looked back into the sky and said: "So when are you going to run straight into the village screaming demon? You wouldn't be the first."

She chuckled and pulled off the scarf, revealing two small black horns. "I've tried that too, it does get old after a while. Most people think that just because I've got horns im going to run down the street killing people and stealing their souls."

He began laughing. "Could be fun to try though"

"You shouldn't say that too loud around the humans, they'll burn you at the stake in a heartbeat, it hurts like hell."

"You've been burned at the stake, how did you survive?"

She opened her palm and in it she created a small ball of green fire. "The blood of Baator has its curses, but also its blessings. I could teach you if you want."

He looked at her with both suspicion and great interest. "Why are you offering me that? We've just met."

"Because I want to ensure that at least one teifling in village will survive until adulthood, there are few enough of us as it is."

With a dark shine in his eyes he said: "Deal."

"So eager you are, good you are going to need the enthusiasm. But first what is your name Child."

He got up, stretched out his hand and said" Matthew"

She grabbed his hand and shook it, and with a wide grin, revealing fangs, she replied: "Esmerelle"


	2. Chapter 2

The years went by quickly for the young teifling. For the first time he found something he could truly dabble in, he found something that felt natural, magic. He learned much and quickly, during the first year he learned as much arcane lore as Amie had accumulated during her entire apprenticeship with Tarmas, he was a natural. For a time he could keep his training a secret, behind a veil of lies and half-truths. But after three years the Mossfield brothers intervened.

Wyll, Ward and Webb walked angrily towards Matthews usual training spot, or at least Wyll and Ward was. Webb was instead trying to talk some sense into his brothers: "Seriously what has he done?"

Wyll walked up to his brother and shouted at him: "He embarrassed me in front of the whole militia, I am not going to be bested by that imp, for that he's gotta pay. So either help us or get out of the way and go home." With a snort Webb did just that, he turned around and left his brothers to their stupidity.

Wyll looked at his brother and yelled: "Fine leave, we'll deal with him without you." They passed an old and rotting shack and reached the clearing where Matthew was training. Ward approached pointed his sword at Matthew and said:"Hey Imp. You don't get to embarrass me in front of everyone. We are having a rematch right here, right now!"

Matthew looked away from the training dummy he had recently annihilated: "So, one embarrassment wasn't enough for you, well if you want one more round, I'll happily oblige." He replied with a mock bow.

Wyll charged and swung his sword with great strength, but limited skill. Matthew easily dodged and retaliated with a pommel strike to the back of Wylls head. Wyll lost his balance and fell to the ground. He screamed at his brother: "Don't just stand there, get him."

Matthew just smiled: "So you want to cheat eh?" He began laughing: "Then so will I." he dropped his sword and ignited two balls of green fire and threw them at Ward. Ward's clothes caught fire and he threw himself to the ground in an attempt to quell the fire.

"What the hell, what the hell." Was the only coherent words that could be heard over his cries of pain and horror.

Matthew simply looked on while Ward rolled back and forth, in a so far futile attempt to put out the fire. He turned his attention back to Wyll: "Your brother is remarkably close the truth." He ignited another ball of fire and snarled: "Run, before I burn more than your ego."

Wyll stumbled to his feet and ran to his brother, he pulled him to his feet before both of them ran back to the village. A figure walked out from behind the old shack: "You do know that those fools will bring more here, possibly Georg or the mage? I do not want them to know that I am here, much less that I am training you." The figure stepped into the light, revealing herself to be his teacher, Esmerelle.

"They have accused me of worse." He spat: "Besides I don't give a shit about what those fools think of me."

"Perhaps, but this time they have proof, you did burn one of them with magic."

He began laughing: "That proves nothing, this place is teeming with the fel energy. I'll just say that the fool ran through a fire or something." He threw a ball of fire at a burned out fireplace, and stomped at the wood, to make it look like someone ran straight through it.

She leaned up against a tree with her arms crossed and an evil smile on her face. "That actually sounds likely, considering that boy's general level of intelligence. Convince them, show me what you can do." With those words she disappeared, Matthew didn't give it much thought, he had other things to worry about. Voices were drawing close.

Not long after he heard the first voices the Mossfields arrived with Georg and Tarmas in tow. Wyll pointed at Matthew and said: "There's that damm Demonspawn."

Not looking away from the training dummy he whispered: "It's devil Wyll." Georg and Tarmas approached with worry on their faces, Wyll and Ward on the other hand, looked very pleased with themselves. Matthew felt a very strong urge to fry them where they stood consequences be damned, but ultimately he decided against it.

With a sigh Matthew greeted the humans: "Georg, Tharmas, to what do I owe the honor?"

Georg pointed at the burns on ward and said: "Would you mind explaining why Ward has second degree burns all over his body."

Matthew laughed and shook his head: "Because he's stupid, plain and simple. Him in his fool of a brother thought that they could beat me up. They were wrong." Matthew pointed at the fire he had recently ignited:"Ward being the fool that he is didn't notice the fire when he charged me. While he rolled around on the ground I fought his brother. He swung his sword with about as much skill as a troll, and I easily disarmed him. And like the cowards they are, they ran."

Tarmas stepped forward with a skeptical look on his face. "Don't lie to me boy, there is magical residue on his wounds, how do you explain that?"

"Tarmas, and you call yourself a wizard." He spread his arms wide and said quite dramatically : "This is the site of the battle of west harbor, the place where the armies of Nasher clashed against a horde of demons and devils. This place is teeming with residual magic, what you can feel is residual magic absorbed by the wood in the fire. A phenomenon that often occurs in marshlands as the water absorbs the magical residue from spells and the trees absorbs the water and any contaminants, the magical residue included. I thought any wizard worth his salt knew that."

Tarmas was baffled, how could that ignorant boy know about such magical phenomena. With a heavy sigh he said: "Yes of course, Holdans law." He turned to Georg. "He is right, it is an entirely plausible explanation:" He turned to leave and said: "If anyone needs me I'll be in my lab."

Georg looked angrily back and forth between Matthew and the Mossfield brothers and with a voice that indicated that he would tolerate no fooling around he said: "Now boys, I want the truth and I want it now. If you give me anymore bullshi…"

Before he could finish his sentence he was interrupted by a quiet, feminine voice. "The Mossfields are lying." It was Amie, she stepped out from her hiding place in the old shack. Everyone, even Matthew, looked at her in surprise: "Matthew is telling the truth, the Mossfields came here to pick a fight, Matthew just defended himself."

Amies testimony was all the proof the furious Georg needed, he turned around and walked back to the village, he looked back and said: "Wyll, Ward, you boys have some armor to clean." The brothers glared at Matthew before they followed Georg.

When they were out of earshot, Matthew turned to Amie and with a very confused look on his face he asked: "Amie, what the hell are you doing here? How long have you been here? How much did you see?"

Amie looked gently at Matthew and said: "Watching you, an hour, all in that timeframe."

Still completely baffled he asked: "Why."

"Because I was curious, I know that you practice magic, I know that you have stolen spellbooks from Tarmas, but they did not contain enough knowledge for you to have learned the things that you have. So I decided that I wanted to know from where you learned what you did, soo I followed you."

He sighed, silently cursing his own stupidity and replied: "So what do you intend to do with this information?"

"I don't intend to do anything, my curiosity has been satisfied, it is none of my business who you seek knowledge from." She walked up to hid and kissed him gently and left without saying another word.

Matthew was almost paralyzed, everything stopped making sense the moment she kissed him and on top of that she had somehow discovered just about every secret he had within an hour. After a few minutes Esmerelle appeared once again and broke the silence: "I think she likes you."


End file.
